Friday, 30 October 2015

Hello and welcome back to Purgatory! It's all go in our world at the moment and here's a quick round up of what we have been up to since we last came to these shores!

St. Peter is done! Yes and boy oh boy does he look cool! The model as sculpted by GRX will be available in the first 2 weeks of November. We, as privileged folk have our first copy and the cast is excellent. He's up for pre order but there are only 10 remaining, so if you don't have your copy move fast!

Murder Inc. are complete! Last time we spoke to you they were on the drawing board, now Hannibal, Bunny Boiler, Traci and co are ready for action and join the Soul Train as our second completed faction.

Keysha is next up. Fancagne Didier will be sculpting one of the leading ladies from the Soul Train. Following in the footsteps of Lux Thantor and his excellent job of St. Peter, Fancagne joins the team to bring our pin up to life!

The Refugees of Religion are off to the artist, having been fleshed out some time ago, these guys are ready to be realised. Watch out for Bridezilla, Mother T and Faith in the coming weeks on our newsfeeds.

Gangsters (a name yet to be selected) and S n' M are in the final stages of being finalised. This means that we have over 50 characters ready for rules, with well over half of these having basic rules assigned. #motoring

So much has occurred as you can see. For those of you subscribed to our newsletter, look out for the next instalment which will be distributed today. Within this issue we talk about the design process, characters and even show some unrevealed as to yet artwork! If you have not subscribed, head to the website: www.purgatory-miniatures.co.uk or drop us an email at purgatoryenquiries@gmail.com you won't be disappointed.

We also talk a little bit about the game in our latest edition, which is rattling along at a steady pace. In fact, the starting sections listed below have been formalised and well truth be told, they just need to be typed up:

Backstory

Determining Scenery

Selecting a Scenario

The game turn

Gifts of the God's

It's all very much a go in Purgatory and well we couldn't be happier.

Over the coming weeks we will be looking for people to play test our alpha rules and we will be making 'paper dolls' available for people to use as proxy for models yet unreleased. If you are interested in playing the game earlier than anyone else, get in touch and let us know.

This week, with so much going on, this won't be a long winded one. Instead, we hope that next week's entry will have a great deal more information for you as things begin to firm up.

Thursday, 8 October 2015

It’s been a long time. Don’t worry, we haven’t deserted you,
we are still here. In fact if you follow the Facebook page you will see that A
LOT has happened in the last few weeks. However, the main reason for being
absent from these hallowed halls is that one of us got married and went away.
How dare we? I hear you cry…

“Well now were back, from out of space, don’t turn around
now….” Err hang on, ‘stay on target’… We are indeed back and we have a lot to
tell you about! So what has happened in Purgatory:

Saint Peter is in the final stages and will be
available by the second week of November! Exciting times!

The third and fourth model are scheduled, yep,
third and fourth. Keys and Barry will be following St Peter and joining us is
Fancagne Didier who will be sculpting Keys for us!

We are also in talks to bring a limited edition ‘event
only’ model along to salute

Murder Inc, the 3rd faction is complete
from a rules perspective and is ½ complete in the art department

20 characters have rules and abilities as we
prepare to Alpha test!

As you can see from the above, we are motoring along quite
nicely. In fact, we are really quite pleased that we are making strides forward
in games terms as well as in our range.

Development:

We are working so very hard to do as much as we can. What is
important is not to lose sight of the

fact that we are a fledgling company who
are self-funding the entire project. We also have day jobs which are pesky and
interfere with our ability to do more. (we love our jobs really) The core focus
of the two of us is to bring something of substance into existence at the
earliest possible time. This will mean a number of things, firstly, that we
might not be as polished in our appearance as others. (for example, our website
was done for free by a friend) However, it’s worth letting you guys know
exactly what we are doing right now so that you know and understand what’s
coming soon:

Revised website. We have taken on board comments
of many people. It is hard to please all. However some truly valid points have
been put across and primary amongst them is functionality. We are currently
exploring the possibility of switching to a ‘wordpress’ or ‘opencart’ where
there is shop function that supports what we are doing.

Factions specific rules. With Murder Inc. and
Soul Train now having basic abilities assigned, we are now switching our
attention to ‘refugees’ and an as yet unnamed faction that work directly for
Harut (more on this below)

Salute stand, the design of this has started to
come together as we bring together art to show case

Models, with Peter almost ready, Keys and Barry
will be in the making to be ready for Salute. This will mean we have 4 or 5
models available for Salute to showcase and demonstrate

Rulebook – core rules to play Purgatory are
firmly in the making (more below)

Artwork – full colour art and line art is being
devised so that each faction has a visual identity

Rules are there to be Broken:

We have over 20 characters which now have starting
abilities. By this, they have names and rules by which we propose they will be
used in game. We have deliberately approached this in such a way that we are
creating the characters first. Once we have a character and an identity we are
looking at what words, moves or historical events you can associate to that individual.
As an example, our take on Jack the Ripper has a move called “Whitechappel
Whirl”.

By approaching it in this way we are aiming to prevent
ourselves from limiting the scope of the game. If we set the rules first all we
will do is shoe horn characters or rules into a pre determined list and
therefore limit the potential for fresh and innovative ideas.

The rules are fun. Each person we have shown written notes,
scribbles or typed up versions has at some point chuckled, either at the name
or at the ability itself. It has caused mirth and banter and actually people
have wanted to perform certain moves just for the sheer audacity of it. It’s
what we are aiming for.

We suppose the next sentence will get gears and cogs
whirring in the minds of any gamers that follow this BLOG. Our game is based on
a D6 system.

………. Let that sink in for a moment………

Ok, are you ready?

Here’s why……

Our game is designed to be fun. It will hopefully challenge
the tried and tested to add some more flavour. But it should also be simple,
easy to pick up and effective. Painters want to paint, they want to pick a
model up with a good cast, clean (briefly) prime and be underway. Gamers want
to read and understand swiftly, or learn on the job. It has to be simple, it
has to be fun, otherwise we will have failed. That is why it will be D6 based
with a flavour of other bits along the way, cards, D8, direction etc.

In the current market place everyone is trying to out-do
everyone else, coming up with innovative rules is difficult and requires a
great deal of testing. It also means there is a high likelihood of things
falling down the back of the sofa and overpowered individuals, gangs or armies
coming to the fore. This requires correction, new versions and regular updates.
This can be off putting.

Instead, it’s the fun interactive aspect or essence that we
are trying to distil. Let’s give you a game which you can pick up, understand
and play quickly and have a bucket tonne of laughs along the way as you declare
that you are going to get Moloch to throw your model across the board, or better
still into a building. Splat. Take that.

So yes, we have placed our token on the roulette table on
number ‘6’, though we won’t lie, there are other side bets kicking around the
table which will add to the flavour.